How to input practice into games? (Marth)

[Zinai]

So, I'm a rookie at melee, been only playing for an year, but I've had progress. I'm only in my third year of high school.

The issue I'm currently having is inputting some good practice into games. I often use SHFFL in matches against other intermediate/expert players I've been facing that have been playing Melee since it's release. Grabs, aerial combos, etc.

However, my issue is that whenever I do some good practice against my younger brother (he's uh a moderate smash player), I never manage to input the good tech or mindset into games against other better players. For example, I use dash dancing, wavedash, shield drop, etc. very well against my younger brother. Yet, sometimes I forget about those moves or just mindlessly act during games against strangers and smash club members.

I'm thinking it's probably because I panic too much, but I don't even know how to remain calm. Whenever I'm calm, I do play better, but somehow I just can't when I'm playing against a good stranger. (Little grunts come out HAHAHA it's pretty funny actually)

So, any solutions to playing a calmer game? Inputting practice into matches? Etc.? I'm really losing a lot of stupid stocks and games against players I know I can beat, but it's just sometimes I can input my practice and sometimes I can't. Sort of inconsistent.

Some tips could work well too! I might upload a comparison video if you guys are willing to help.

Thanks!

-Unknown Rookie

 

[A_Reverie]

The most common answer to this is just to grind it out. Over time everything will become ingrained in your muscle memory, but I think it's also important to understand why this works. The following is a theory I've come up with through my own experience, mainly in solo practicing.

At your level, a lot of your mental resources, or "space," is being used to focus on these technical skills. This is normal, and as you gain experience, you'll require less space to focus on tech skill and have more room to think about things such as spacing, timing, follow-ups, and later on mind games and all the things that come with it. The same is true for everything I just listed. As your devote more of your time training each of these concepts, you will require less mental resources in order to execute them properly. Mind gaming is probably the only thing that doesn't really have a limit.

Knowing this, you can plan out what things to train and when. The most common thing people work on when they're getting started is tech skill. This is something you can do in your free time by yourself by just grinding it out. Pick a stage and just practice your movement on it for a while. Do this every day and eventually you'll be more used to doing it naturally until eventually you don't even have to think about it all and can devote your mind to the next concept. This doesn't mean you'll move on when you completely master something. You'll probably be working on something down the line and discover something else tech related that you need to iron out, but at that point it won't take as much focus because you'll already be adept at training that concept.

I hope this helped. Welcome to Smashboards, by the way! This was one of the questions we get quite often, but we're becoming better at answering things here all the time, so don't let that discourage you from asking anything else. Hope you stick around and post more.

 

[The Young Izzy Iz]

A_Reverie's post is more than probably a sufficient answer to your question, but if you'd like further critiques maybe you could consider posting some of your matches over in the Marth Critique thread that's stickied at the top of the thread list?